First Potions
by Rhys
Summary: Albus Potter, Rose Weasley, and Scorpius Malfoy have their first Potions lesson of the 2017 school year. It doesn't go well.


**First Potions**

Albus's stream of chatter abruptly stopped as they touched the first stair to the dungeon. Scorpius didn't notice; each step jolted a thrill of excitement like lightning up through his heels. Finally, the day was almost over; one more class to go, the last one of their second day at Hogwarts, and the one that Scorpius had been looking forward to the most. Finding it scheduled not only last, but not at _all_ their first day, had been a grave disappointment but now, _finally, _he was heading to Potions.

He took the last few steps in a gallop and bounced on his toes while he waited for Albus to drag himself down after him. Grinning widely, Scorpius pulled his new friend to the front-and-center desk inches from the teacher's own. He didn't want to miss a _thing _this lesson. He was talking to Albus the whole time he unpacked his supplies, but it was empty babbling; he didn't know what he was saying, and the other was hardly listening. Scorpius had progressed to drumming impatiently on his cauldron rim when Albus turned to the door and waved.

A tall girl with bushy red hair wearing Gryffindor colors grinned and waved back. Separating herself from the rest of the red-and-gold students that were, almost to a person, heading for the tables in the back end of the room, the girl slid onto the bench next to Albus, dropping a heavy stack of books with a thud.

"Hey Al!" she beamed cheerily. "Isn't this all so _exciting? _I'm glad we finally have a class together, I was afraid we were hardly going to see each other all term! Shame you weren't in Gryffindor like me and James—not that I've seen _him_ much, of course. He said to tell you hello, though."

Albus gave a sickly sort of smile; Scorpius knew that the Sorting was rather a sore point with his friend. He sympathized entirely; he knew he would have felt even worse if he _hadn't _been sorted into Slytherin. Shared Sorting nerves had actually been what first drew them together on the train ride over, for although the cause was diametrically opposite, the feeling had been the exact same.

"Hi Rose," the dark-haired boy said. "Yeah, it's been pretty neat so far. This is Scorpius." He turned to reverse the introductions. "Rose is my cousin, I've known her _forever._ Well, one of my cousins, anyway."

"Oh," said Rose before Scorpius could offer a greeting, "Scorpius _Malfoy, _right? Yeah, my dad pointed you out at the station."

Scorpius was about to ask, "what for?" but just then the classroom door swung open and shut once more, and a large, round green figure waddled up the aisle. He introduced himself as Professor Slughorn and launched into a speech about the class. Scorpius hung on his every word. Rose was staring intently at the teacher as well, quill poised in hand. Albus fiddled with his supplies and wouldn't look up from their work table.

Their first assigned potion was so easy, Scorpius couldn't resist fiddling with it. He knew that if you added just a dash of peppermint when stirring in the nettles, it would give the final concoction more kick—provided, of course, that you paid careful attention when adding the porcupine quills, because the peppermint tended to make it bubble angrily if you put them in too fast.

He started to sprinkle the small leaves into his cauldron when suddenly a hand shot out and grabbed his own. "Wait!" Rose hissed frantically, leaning across Albus. "That's the wrong ingredient!"

"No it's not," Scorpius started to explain, "it increases potency of the nettles—"

Rose shook her head. "No, you add the nettles by themselves, then you stir in the slugs. Didn't you read the instructions?"

"Of course I did," he replied shortly. "That's how I knew to use the peppermint."

"Nowhere," Rose said darkly, "does it mention _peppermint._"

"Well no, but nettles—"

Rose shook her book under his nose and pointed furiously at the instructions. "_Look. _Do you _see _peppermint anywhere on there?"

"_No,_ I already tried to _tell you_ that it's _better _if you do. Just because the book doesn't say something…"

"If the _book _doesn't say it, then you _shouldn't _do it," she retorted primly. "Honestly, what's the point of going to class and reading the textbook if you're just going to start throwing things into your cauldron willy-nilly?"

Scorpius leaned across Albus's cauldron to glare at her. "I am not," he said slowly, gravely insulted, "adding things 'willy-nilly.' I just _happen _to have thought it out carefully, thank you, and I _know _that the use of peppermint with nettles, when your potion also contains horned slugs but no daisy roots, will give—"

"Oh, so _you _know more than the _book, _then? I suppose Arsenius Jigger should have consulted _you _before he published." Scorpius scowled and tried to interrupt, but Rose plowed ahead tartly. "Well! Maybe _you _should just _teach _the class, Professor Malfoy, and the _rest _of us can just throw our _useless _books away then." She sniffed disdainfully and began crushing her snake fangs with extra vigor.

"That is _not _what I said," Scorpius hissed angrily. He glanced around anxiously, but Professor Slughorn was trying to help a small brown-haired Gryffindor boy beat out the blue flames that were dancing a jig on his table. "I _said,_" he continued crossly, "that I am _very carefully _choosing to deviate from the book's prescribed instructions, because I know _one thing _that will make _this _potion better. If _you _did, you would do the same, and if you _wanted _to know what it was I could _tell _you."

"Well I _don't,_" Rose shot back. "_I_ will listen to the _book, _because it _clearly _has been in use for years, and I think that if no one has come up with a better idea in all this time, no _first year _is going to do so _now._"

"Fine then, when you get a poor grade for a watery potion, _don't _blame me."

"And when _you _get marks off because your potion is _useless_, don't blame _me._"

They both exchanged one last, venomous glare across the top of Albus's gently bubbling cauldron, then turned away sharply towards their own work. Scorpius's mood was not improved by the fact that his argument with Rose had made him ignore the careful timing necessary, and now his porcupine quills were being tetchy and he had allowed some of the potion to burn. Judging by the smoke issuing from Rose's cauldron, she was suffering similarly, but that did nothing to fix his potion or relieve his feelings.

When it came time to turn in their potions at the end of class, Scorpius was quite grumpy. He knew that he had made a very poor showing, and he had _so _wanted to impress Slughorn. He was so embarrassed by his concoction that he debated _evanesco_-ing the whole thing and telling the professor that he had spilled his cauldron, but trudged up despondently nonetheless to place a small vial on the desk. Better to get poor marks than no marks, he decided, consoling himself with the knowledge that he would do much better next time and maybe the professor would think this first one had just faltered due to nerves.

Rose came back to their table with a scowl to match Scorpius's. They stared as Albus poured out a thin, perfectly glistening liquid into his own vial and carried it up. He flushed pink when he noticed them staring at him and tripped on his way back to his seat.

"Albus," Rose said in a voice that was as much annoyance as awe, "that looked great."

"Yeah," Scorpius nodded, "well done."

Rose glanced at Scorpius. "I see rebelling against the text didn't work out so well for you," she said lightly. "Maybe next time you'll be more cautious."

"Well, _following _the book clearly didn't work for _you_," Scorpius snapped back.

The girl sniffed. "I was _distracted _trying to save _your _potion."

"_You _distracted _me,_" Scorpius replied hotly. "_That's _why my potion didn't work."

"Albus didn't have any problem," Rose replied, gathering up her stack of books. "Maybe you should learn from _his _example."

"Actually," Albus mumbled reluctantly, "I, ah, I added the peppermint, too."

"You _what?" _Rose stared at him in betrayal and he fidgeted.

"Well, Scorpius made it sound like a good idea…"

The boy in question grinned proudly. Rose frowned at them both. "Well," she announced at last, "it _was _a ridiculously simple potion. No doubt it was assigned solely because it's _so _hard to foul up, even when you add _things _you shouldn't, and it was only because I…_we_," she added grumpily, "were distracted that our own turned out so poorly."

Albus nodded hurriedly. "No doubt," he agreed with a hopeful grin.

"Hmph!" said Rose, and turned on her heel. She paused at the door and glanced back, her expression not softening although she did relent enough to give Albus an abortive wave farewell. "I'll look forward to seeing _you_ next class, then, Albus," she said pointedly.

"_I_ can't wait!" Scorpius shot back tartly as she stomped away. He grabbed his own bag and stuffed his carefully-packed supplies back into it haphazardly. "I hope you don't mean to sit with your cousin every day," he grumbled. "No offense, Albus, but she's _horrid." _

Albus sighed as he followed the other boy out the door. "Well, I can tell that Potions is going to be _really _fun," he muttered to himself, green eyes rolling. He trailed Scorpius slowly up the stairs, thinking to himself that he ought to have known that nothing good could come of this class; his entire family—and Uncle Neville—had warned him about the dangers of the Hogwarts dungeon and its Potions lessons.

* * *

_Suggested reading: _Literary Criticism _by LadieLazarus.  
It is, more or less, the sequel to this story, and is very good.  
_


End file.
